To cool or not to cool?
Discussion
That is the question?
Decided to tidy up the innards of my PC recently and in the course of mooching around the web looking for things like rounded IDE cables, I've become obsessed with cooling. The machine is a three year old jobbie from Tiny, so not exactly cutting edge - other than the power supply unit and CPU fans, there are no other intakes/exhausts. I'm not a gamer or anything, but I have put a second hard drive in and opinion seems to be that some extra cooling might be beneficial. Options are :-
Intake fan at front bottom (nothing there currently)
Fan kit in spare 5.25" bay (above both HDDs)
No intake but use a hard drive cooler
Leave it as it is!
Anyone have any experience with what's likely to work best?
Decided to tidy up the innards of my PC recently and in the course of mooching around the web looking for things like rounded IDE cables, I've become obsessed with cooling. The machine is a three year old jobbie from Tiny, so not exactly cutting edge - other than the power supply unit and CPU fans, there are no other intakes/exhausts. I'm not a gamer or anything, but I have put a second hard drive in and opinion seems to be that some extra cooling might be beneficial. Options are :-
Intake fan at front bottom (nothing there currently)
Fan kit in spare 5.25" bay (above both HDDs)
No intake but use a hard drive cooler
Leave it as it is!
Anyone have any experience with what's likely to work best?
Adding fans will add noise. No question.
I would get some round IDE cables and route them well. Place the HDDs away from each other giving them space to breathe.
The next step if you want more cooling I would say, go for an ally case with extra fans, cooling and noise baffles. I have a cooler master case, and it is quiet enough for me.
I would get some round IDE cables and route them well. Place the HDDs away from each other giving them space to breathe.
The next step if you want more cooling I would say, go for an ally case with extra fans, cooling and noise baffles. I have a cooler master case, and it is quiet enough for me.
If you've had the machine for 3 years what's the problem?. It must be cool enough or it will have failed by now. "If it ain't bust don't fix it"
If you have a noise problem that's a different thing entirely and probably due to the fan in the power supply. My old PC was quite noisy and this was due to the power supply. I now have a system in an Antec SLK3700BQE using the standard AMD suppled CPU fan and it is very quiet.
Hugh
If you have a noise problem that's a different thing entirely and probably due to the fan in the power supply. My old PC was quite noisy and this was due to the power supply. I now have a system in an Antec SLK3700BQE using the standard AMD suppled CPU fan and it is very quiet.
Hugh
I'd replace the crap £4.99 PSU with the crap 5p sleeve-bearing'd fan and no airflow that Tiny will undoubtably have given you, with a decent thermostatic one. Check the case fitment though, they sometimes don't take full size ATX PSU's.
I'd second the idea of spacing the drives out too, and make sure they're both installed tightly with 4 screws rather than 2 (helps sink heat into the chassis)
If you're going to put an extra fan in the case, I'd try and put it where its going to draw out the hot air from around the CPU.
HTH!
Neil
I'd second the idea of spacing the drives out too, and make sure they're both installed tightly with 4 screws rather than 2 (helps sink heat into the chassis)
If you're going to put an extra fan in the case, I'd try and put it where its going to draw out the hot air from around the CPU.
HTH!
Neil
I'd not bother myself.
HDD's don't make much heat. If they do they're on their way out. The motor drive is the biggest consumer of power, but friction inside the drive is low, and the only time real power is used, is when the drive comes up to speed.
Processors, and chipsets, make heat, because they're CMOS/NMOS. Each time one (pair) transistor(s) switches a little squidge of electrons goes from the power supply to ground.
The more you have, and the faster they switch, the more power is used.
The processor has about the same packing density (on a package basis) as the chipset. The processor has approximately ten times more transistors (and thus generates ten times more heat).
Very little computation goes on inside the disk drive.
Also consider that the apertures in your PC case, are carefully placed, to cause airflow inside the box to be in the right place for the individual devices.
The PSU makes heat because it has to regulate power from 240 down to 5 and 12V. The transformer does most of this with reasonable efficiency (the waste is heat), but there has to be a little intentional waste to allow for fluctuations in load and supply.
When load and supply match well through the transformer, the only loss is due to the transformer ineficiency. At all other times there is some intentional/unavoidable loss to allow a margin to meet demand. This is PSU heat.
>> Edited by dilbert on Wednesday 7th September 09:01
HDD's don't make much heat. If they do they're on their way out. The motor drive is the biggest consumer of power, but friction inside the drive is low, and the only time real power is used, is when the drive comes up to speed.
Processors, and chipsets, make heat, because they're CMOS/NMOS. Each time one (pair) transistor(s) switches a little squidge of electrons goes from the power supply to ground.
The more you have, and the faster they switch, the more power is used.
The processor has about the same packing density (on a package basis) as the chipset. The processor has approximately ten times more transistors (and thus generates ten times more heat).
Very little computation goes on inside the disk drive.
Also consider that the apertures in your PC case, are carefully placed, to cause airflow inside the box to be in the right place for the individual devices.
The PSU makes heat because it has to regulate power from 240 down to 5 and 12V. The transformer does most of this with reasonable efficiency (the waste is heat), but there has to be a little intentional waste to allow for fluctuations in load and supply.
When load and supply match well through the transformer, the only loss is due to the transformer ineficiency. At all other times there is some intentional/unavoidable loss to allow a margin to meet demand. This is PSU heat.
>> Edited by dilbert on Wednesday 7th September 09:01
dilbert said:
HDD's don't make much heat.
They may not use that much power, but they do get quite hot. It used to be my job to stuff PC's full of temperature probes and put them in ovens, with a couple of drives together in a badly designed case it's not unusual for the drive casing to top 90 degrees C at 35 degrees ambient after a few hours. Obviuosley the life of the disk would be seriousley curtailed at that kind of temperature.
Thats why in server cases where you have room for lots of disks, they tend to be mounted with a good airgap all around them and tend to be directly in the path of the main airflow through the case.
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